mercoledì 29 aprile 2015

Gian Marco Ciampa China Tour 2015


Il Conservatorio “Santa Cecilia” presenta Gian Marco Ciampa in Cina

Il Conservatorio di Musica “Santa Cecilia” di Roma presenta il debutto in Cina, con un mini-Tour nella capitale Beijing, del giovane chitarrista romano Gian Marco Ciampa, vincitore di numerosi Concorsi Internazionali e premiato con la “Chitarra d’oro 2014” come miglior giovane talento dal Concorso Internazionale di Alessandria “Michele Pittaluga”, già impegnato nel suo Tour Internazionale che lo ha visto suonare in tantissime città europee e che lo ha portato ad esibirsi al Manhattan Theatre di New York.
Tre straordinari appuntamenti che lo vedranno esibirsi in concerto e tenere Masterclass presso il “Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing”, per la prestigiosa “ Accademy of Opera “ della Peking University e nello splendido Auditorium dell’ Istituto Italiano di Cultura.

Per news ed aggiornamenti basta seguire su tutti i Social Network l’hastag #CiampaBeijingTour :
FACEBOOK: http://www.facebook.com/gianmarcociampa
TWITTER: www.twitter.com/gmciampa
INSTAGRAM: gmciampa
PINTEREST: http://pinterest.com/gmciampa/
TUMBLR: http://gmciampa.tumblr.com/

martedì 28 aprile 2015

Guitar's Documentary: RESONATE 2008 FULL MOVIE


"Resonate: A Guitar Story", a 90-minute feature documentary featuring four of the world's leading roots/blues/jazz/traditional guitarists Doug MacLeod, Mike Dowling, Catfish Keith and Bob Brozman.


domenica 26 aprile 2015

Guitars Speak: la chitarra swing di Oscar Aleman


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Oscar Marcelo Alemán è stato un chitarrista jazz argentino. Amico, rivale e collega del grande Django Reinhardt, conquistò Parigi negli anni '30 come chitarrista e leader della band di Josephin Baker. Caratterizzato da una tecnica personale e da uno swing irresistibile Aleman è stato uno dei grandi chitarristi dell'epoca d'oro dello swing a Parigi. Fuggito dalla Francia dopo l'invasione tedesca del 1940 tornò in Argentina, dove continuò la sua carriera, lontano però dall'attenzione internazionale.

Oscar Marcelo Alemán was an Argentine jazz guitarist, singer, dancer and entertainer. began playing guitar as a teenager in Argentina and in the late '20s, he moved to Europe, Spain at first. By 1931, he was living in Paris and during 1933-1935, he was a regular member of Freddy Taylor's Swing Men From Harlem. Alemán appeared on records with trumpeter Bill Coleman and clarinetist Danny Polo and was the leader on eight selections from 1938-1939. He moved back to Argentina in 1941 and, although he recorded as late as 1974, few outside of his native country have ever heard of him.


http://radiovocedellasperanza.it/

sabato 25 aprile 2015

Guitar's Documentary: Luthier Rick Turner


Rick Turner (born July 30, 1945) is an American builder of guitars and basses.
He co-founded Alembic Inc in 1970 and was involved in the design and construction of the Alembic instruments. He founded Rick Turner Guitars in 1979 and joined Gibson in 1988 where he served as president of Gibson Labs West Coast Division. Turner left Gibson in 1992 and ran a guitar repair shop at Westwood Music in Los Angeles where he developed piezo pickup designs, working with Jackson Browne, David Crosby and others. He later co-founded Highlander Musical Audio, manufacturer of piezo pickups for acoustic guitars.He continues to design and build guitars for many professional players including Lindsey Buckingham, Ry Cooder, David Lindley, David Crosby and Andy Summers. He is also a regular columnist for Acoustic Guitar magazine and was a former columnist for Bass Player, Frets and Guitar Player magazines. He has partnered with Seymour W. Duncan to form D-TAR. The Turner Model 1 electric was designed by Turner for use by Fleetwood Mac guitarist Lindsey Buckingham, who continues to use the Model 1 to this day. Turner helped engineer the Grateful Dead's "Wall of Sound." Turner holds the patent on the graphite guitar neck, which he developed in 1976 with Geoff Gould (who then started Modulus Graphite). He also pioneered the use of curved plates on the front and back of his Model 1 electric guitars in order to reduce standing wave hysteresis loss and the use of 18 volt preamps in an attempt to tame the 'quack' sound commonly associated with piezoelectric acoustic guitar pickups.


mercoledì 22 aprile 2015

Guitars Speak: Trio Chitarristico di Bergamo e Bach Guitar Duo


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Puntata dedicata alla chitarra classica con l'ultimo cd, Light Shadows of Ideas, del Trio Chitarristico di Bergamo dedicato alla musica per chitarra contemporanea e al nuovo cd del Bach Guitar Duo, Sacred Arias & Chorales, dedicato alla musica del grande Johan Sebastian Bach, il primo cd realizzato dalla netlabel AlchEmistica.

Episode dedicated to the classical guitar with the Trio Chitarristico di Bergamo's latest CD, Light Shadows of Ideas, devoted to contemporary music for guitar and the new CD of Bach Guitar Duo, Sacred Arias & Chorales, dedicated to the music of the great Johan Sebastian Bach, produced by the italian netlabel AlchEmistica.

http://radiovocedellasperanza.it/

domenica 19 aprile 2015

CHITARRE VISIONARIE e ECLECTRIC RENAISSANCE



giovedì 23 aprile 2015 ore 19

CHITARRE VISIONARIE
Andrea Aguzzi
presentazione del libro di Andrea Aguzzi "Chitarre visionarie. Conversazioni con chitarristi alternativi", Youcanprint 2014. Introduce l’autore

http://chitarraedintorni.blogspot.com/

ECLECTRIC RENAISSANCE
Gianluca Geremia | Gianantonio Rossi
musiche di Luisa Antoni , Gianluca Geremia, Daniele Locatelli, Jozef Pjetri, Gianantonio Rossi
Gianluca Geremia arciliuto, tiorba
Gianantonio Rossi basso elettrico, loop station
eventi a cura di Riccardo Vaglini

Riccardo Vaglini e ArsPublica Edizioni hanno il piacere di invitarvi alla presentazione del libro "Chitarre visionarie, quindici conversazioni di Andrea Aguzzi con chitarristi alternativi", ad ascoltare il basso elettrico di Gianantonio Rossi e gli strumenti rinascimentali di Gianluca Geremia in un’antologia contemporanea nata come progetto didattico del conservatorio Benedetto Marcello di Venezia, e a bere un bicchiere di vino all’Agitprop, una casa, una galleria, una cellula urbana di cultura democratica.

AGI T P ROP GA L E R I E
VIA BEMBO 9/A
30172 VENEZIA MESTRE
agitpropgalerie.com
agitpropgalerie@gmail.com

sabato 18 aprile 2015

Guitar Legends Documentary - Expo '92 Sevilla


'Guitar Legends' was a concert held over five nights, from 15th to 19th October 1991 in Seville, Spain, to publicise the Expo '92 event the following year.

This superb one hour documentary from 1991 was made in the run up to the Guitar Legends concert, and features interviews with many of the musicians who performed.


venerdì 17 aprile 2015

Concerto Massimo Lonardi 26-04-2015 - Sarcinelli in Musica 2015 - Conegliano - TV



Sarcinelli in Musica 2015 primo appuntamento

L'Associazione per l’Istituto Musicale “A. Benedetti Michelangeli” è orgogliosa di presentare con il sostegno del Comune di Conegliano e in collaborazione con Palazzo Sarcinelli e Civita Tre Venezie una rassegna concertistica di altissimo livello nell'ambito della prestigiosa mostra “CARPACCIO Vittore e Benedetto da Venezia all'Istria – L'autunno magico di un maestro”.
Nell'androne di Palazzo Sarcinelli si terranno i tre concerti in cartellone per “Sarcinelli in Musica 2015” con la volontà di condividere con la cittadinanza e con gli appassionati della musica su strumenti originali questo connubio tra pittura e musica.
Il primo concerto della rassegna si terrà domenica 26 aprile alle ore 18.30 nell'androne di Palazzo Sarcinelli e vedrà protagonista il M° Massimo Lonardi al liuto rinascimentale. Il M° Lonardi è attualmente considerato uno dei maggiori interpreti di musica rinascimentale a livello internazionale e ha al suo attivo circa una cinquantina di incisioni discografiche nonché un'esperienza concertistica e didattica frutto di oltre trent'anni di attività.
http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massimo_Lonardi
http://www.allmusic.com/artist/massimo-lonardi-mn0001638384/biography
Il repertorio proposto offre al pubblico le più belle musiche per liuto del tempo di Vittore e Benedetto Carpaccio: da Francesco da Milano ditto Il Divino (appellativo che il compositore ricevette in vita e che condivise con Michelangelo, sempre a sottolineare il fortissimo legame tra musica e arti figurative) a Pietro Paulo Borrono ditto l'Eccellente, da Joan Ambrosio Dalza a Francesco Spinacino e Vincenzo Capirola. Il programma è composto da Tastar de corde, Ricercari e Danze: quasi tutte queste musiche furono pubblicate a Venezia che all’epoca era il faro dell’editoria musicale nel mondo.
E chiudiamo il cerchio tornando a Venezia, città che si riflette nell'opera di Carpaccio con le sue pale e i suoi teleri, con le sue testimonianze della vita, dei costumi e dei fasti della Serenissima dei sec. XV e XVI. E i suoi particolari, soprattutto nell'iconografia sacra, di angeli musicanti che imbracciano, tra i vari strumenti, anche il liuto che nel Rinascimento ebbe una fortuna paragonabile solo a quella del pianoforte nell'800. Del repertorio per liuto, della sua prassi esecutiva e degli aspetti sinestetici che legano a filo doppio musica e pittura parlerà il Maestro Lonardi, con brevi interventi sullo strumento, in due lectio previste per i visitatori della mostra nell'arco della giornata prima del concerto del tardo pomeriggio.
Sarà un onore per la Città di Conegliano e per l'Istituto “Michelangeli” vedere materializzarsi il sogno di rivivere e far rivivere a chi sarà presente le atmosfere e i colori di Vittore e Benedetto fuse in tutt'uno con il contrappunto musicale del Rinascimento. Nelle sale di Palazzo Sarcinelli, con un musicista d'eccezione attorniato da figure musicanti, si compirà uno splendido viaggio indietro nel tempo.
Costo biglietto per tutti i concerti: € 12,00 (comprensivo di biglietto ridotto € 6,00 per ingresso mostra e aperitivo pre-concerto), ingresso gratuito per i bambini sotto i 12 anni.
Informazioni e biglietti: Ufficio Informazione e Accoglienza Turistica - IAT di Conegliano c/o Palazzo Sarcinelli - Via xx Settembre, 132- Conegliano, tel. 0438.21230, e-mail iatconegliano@provincia.treviso.it
Orari:
  • lunedì chiuso
  • martedì 9 -13
  • mercoledì 9 -13
  • giovedì 9 -13 e 14 -18
  • venerdì 9 -13 e 14 -18
  • sabato 9 -13 e 14 -18
  • domenica 9 -13 e 14 -18
Direzione artistica rassegna: M° Anna Carlet, M° Alan Dario
Organizzazione: Istituto Musicale “A. Benedetti Michelangeli” - Conegliano - Tv
Contatti: tel. 0438 21190, e-mail info@istituto-michelangeli.it - carlet.anna@gmail.com
sito web www.istituto-michelangeli.it





Sergio Fabian Lavia in concerto

jpg

giovedì 16 aprile 2015

Interview with Stefano Zabeo by Andrea Aguzzi


Hello Stefano, I try to play a game with you ... in 1987, in February issue of the italian magazine Chitarre appeared your interview. I try to ask you again some of these questions, you answered .. 28 years ago, let's see what has changed since then? Then I add some questions of my own.

How did you approach your guitar?

Guitar was undoubtedly the instrument that more than any other has fascinated me, but it was not the only one in my personal musical journey. You see, in the days when I started (it was still in mid 60s), it was important to be part of a band, or a "group" as it was then called; then which instrument you played was often decided based on the vacancies in the group that you wanted to join. In reality, however, the very first instrument that I approached was the harmonium because my parents, when I was 10 years old, I had given me a very small and very simple one with the electric motor to blow air into the reeds. But with the advent of the Beat era the collective imagination of an entire generation underwent a drastic change: the music suddenly became the vehicle of redemption, of rebellion and a hope of success in life.
The Beatles, and the Rolling Stones and all groups of that time were not simply admired for the music they produced, but considered true masters of life, the "first" that had managed to get to where we all hoped to arrive ... so that the sense of belonging to the "group" was before the same music. Sure, we were terribly naive, and we did not realize how miserable were our attempts nor what our myths were trying to make us understand between the lines. Only a few of us indeed understood the English language at those times beacause at school you primary learned  French, and so, we were singing in a kind of awkward grammelot or dialect but we took it very seriously, we did not realize that maybe the true original text played "The I'm a loser, and I'm not what I appear to be "... anyway the truth was that a band with of two guitars, bass and drums became the standard and, like many others, I began to learn that instrument, because guitarists were always on display. In time, however, things changed and I played other instruments primarily based on the needs of the musical trends. I went from guitar to bass, then on keyboards, tenor sax and flute. It was only in the 70s that I returned to the guitar and then I never abandoned it.

Who were the guitarists who have influenced you the most?

I could name countless, but for very different reasons among them I would say especially Keith Richards, Johnny Winter and Freddie King. The first for his concept about the rhythm guitar, the second for the elegance of phrasing and the third for the enormous emotionalism of his notes. But it is very simplistic to stop only 3 names!

How much is important guitar's technique for a blues guitarist?

Technique is useful only as it allows you to better express your emotions, but in the blues can even become a handicap if let it carry you away. I know it's could be a bit strange idea in an age of acrobatic guitar hero that can play all speeds! But it is the same with blues often go against corrent... "less is more" is the phrase that best describes the way you play the blues. Alexis Korner once told me: "The real blues musician is the one that plays JUST really indispensable notes." You see, it's a matter of vocabulary and register exactly like in the spoken language. If you want to describe a dialogue between two longshoremen in Marseille, you can not use terms that are too refined and complex and evolved syntax, because the registry would sound wrong. The blues is a bit '"ignorant", I hope you will accept this term, and the most important thing is the message it brings, emotional immediacy of what you express. There is no room in it for the virtuosity, because they can not be immediate because by their very nature require long preparation and exhausting exercises. I'm not saying that the virtuosity itself is wrong, God forbid me! But the blues is the other way, that's for sure!

What is your relationship with guitar?

I love guitar because I express myself with it, but I never forget the nature of "instrument": that is used to get to the music and not vice versa.


Currently how many guitars do you have?

18 :-D :-D :-D

Do you think is possible to live in Italy only playing the Blues?

I would love to tell you so, but I would be insincere! Nobody has never managed it, and even the few who play blues full time actually have other resources that give them the opportunity to live that way. Basically I think there are two major obstacles to prevent that a musician can live playing only blues here in Italy. The first and most important is the lack of credibility that we attach ourselves to our own bluesman. An Italian who plays blues looks almost like a Japanese singing "'O sole mio". No matter if from so many years the blues language had such a spread to become universal: for the people it continues to be a music exclusive heritage of African Americans. But also ourselves that we are in the industry are always ready to run to see  the first American, while hardly we move for somebody who is not coming from the promised land! And the second obstacle, related to the first, is the language: the public does not follow easily the English texts, there is little things to do! This causes tthat he blues music is a forcibly niche and therefore the market is what it is ...

What amp do you use? Do you use some effect?

For years, I almost exclusively use Fender amps (I have 5 of them), the only exception is a small 15-watt Ampeg. As effects I play only a delay, especially for the slide parts, and sometimes an overdrive if the room does not allow to increase the volume of the amplifier. In the past I used sporadically a chorus, but lately I've abandoned it.

You know .. several years passed since Guido Toffoletti died, you have played a lot with him, do you want to talk about him? What kind of person he was?

Not many know that Guido and I were friends since adolescence and not just musical collaborators. Guido was a normal man with all his strengths and all his faults: I have never shared the idea that the traits of a person must be sublimated after his death because that is the real way to bury it for good. Guido anyway had musical patterns different than that most of the other musicians shared and this led him to play in a way that many of them, unfortunately, did not appreciate. And here we return to the discourse on the technique that we have faced before. The guitar is a very overused in our country, but perhaps anywhere. This causes the fact that the development of a highly competitive among guitar players, sometimes even decidedly excessive. If we add the widespread mentality that only those who have great technique deserves attention and success, what I call ironically "paganinism", there arose the hatred towards any person obtaining a success judged undeserved ... beyond the famous "nemo propheta in patria" all those who spent hours and hours on the instrument in the paranoid quest to be" the best "and still did not get the slightest success, could not stand that one of them who was considered of limited capacity could play in theaters and on television as well as being interviewed. Someone came to invent the story that he would bring bad luck, as often happens when you have no other available means. And he really suffered this a lot. What shall I say? Perhaps the most obvious accomplishment was his managerial ability that undoubtedly he had. But that doesn't mean he was not a real musician: he would not come to play with all the international characters that played on his records and in his concerts live! Aside from the personal relationship and friendship, I have a big debt of gratitude to him because I would never have come to meet so many important musicians  and to play along with them if it was not for him!


What is the significance of improvisation in your music research? Do you think it's possible to talk about improvisation in the classical repertoire or you're forced to leave and turn to other repertoires, jazz, contemporary, etc?

Here I think you have asked me a question that perhaps was addressed to other musicians... but improvisation is the basis of blues without a doubt! The beauty of the blues is just in the extemporaneousness of its executions that are from time to time new roads starting from the same structured code.

How does your musical methodology is influenced by the community of people (musicians or not) with which you collaborate? Do you change your approach in relation to what you directly or indirectly receive from them? If you listen to a different interpretation of a song that you already played or that you want to play, do you keep in mind this listening or do you prefer to proceed in complete independence?

Any experience life proposes you ends up influencing the way you play: this is valid about listening to other musicians. I definitely learned more listening to others bad performances then staying closed at home studying sterile things. But I also learned a lot of beautiful things made by good musicians.

A little bit provocative question about music in general, not just contemporary or avant-garde. Frank Zappa in his autobiography wrote: "If John Cage, for example, said" Now I put a contact microphone on my throat, then I drink carrot juice and this will be my composition ", then his gargling would qualify as a COMPOSITION, because he applied a frame, declaring it as such. "Take it or leave it, now I want this to be music." Do you think this could be a really good statement to define a music's genre, just say this is classical music, this is contemporary and it's done? Does it still makes sense to talk of "genre"?

The music genre is the vocabulary with which you express yourself. The lexicon is the result of rules. The real musician is the one who doesn't care about the rules just to express himself. The important thing is that there is not only an aesthetic but an emotional message in what you do: I doubt that a gargle can express emotions, but you never know ...

You play the blues from many years. I sometimes feel that in our time music history flows without a particular interest in its chronological course, in our discoteque before and after, the past and the future become interchangeable elements, shall it  present a risk for an interpreter and a composer of a uniform vision? A "globalization" of music?

The vision of "uniform" or "globalized" doesn't represent a danger to the real artists because there will never be for them the approval of their personality. Schools have always existed, and gave home to a myriad of pseudo-artists so insignificant as to be often forgotten or remembered only by geeks, which in turn have established a career placing an attempt to reduce art to a encyclopedic list without understanding its true nature and enjoying it. I think is enoght to say that the school should churn out more than any other new brilliant minds that can create innovation is called "Conservatory": In contrast the true artists have broken from the basis the same schools that they had bred. I do not consider myself a true artist, and this is why I would say these things: I'm  only one that makes the most of what he does trying to try and convey emotions, that's all!

What are you five favourite scores?

There are no scores in blues music :-D

The blog is also read by young graduates, what advice would you give to those who, after years of study, decided to start a career as a musician?

Nowadays, any job you want to get has not a real gain perspective: so I think is better to do only what you are passionate about

Who would you like to play with and who would you like to play?

I have already managed to play with many of those with whom I dreamed of being able to play, but we are always part of the myth. In reality then things do not always correspond to dreams. I'd love to play exclusively with musicians who love what they do and believe. I'd like to "play" all those who think they are very good because they make a thousand notes per second.

What are your next projects?

I'm putting back together the old Blues Society, the band of Guido in its original lineup, and I'm very excited about this thing!


mercoledì 15 aprile 2015

Guitars Speak: la chitarra di Lonnie Johnson


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Mercoledì sera alle 21 sarò in onda con il programma radio "Guitars Speak" per raccontarvi la storia di Lonnie Johnson. Johnson è stato un cantante e chitarrista statunitense, passato alla storia per la sua straordinaria capacità innovativa nel suonare la chitarra e per aver saputo fondere in maniera originale stili come blues e jazz. Grazie al suo stile rivoluzionario è considerato il progenitore di tutti i chitarristi jazz e blues, ispirando, fra i tanti, musicisti del calibro di B.B. King, Django Reinhardt e Robert Johnson.

This Wednesday I will tell you the story of Lonnie Johnson, in my radio program "Guitars Speak".Alonzo "Lonnie" Johnson was an American blues and jazz singer/guitarist, violinist and songwriter who pioneered the role of jazz guitar and jazz violin, and is recognized as the first to play an electrically-amplified violin. Lonnie Johnson pioneered the single-string solo guitar styles that we are accustomed to hearing today in rock, blues and jazz music. 

http://radiovocedellasperanza.it/

lunedì 13 aprile 2015

Intervista a Stefano Zabeo di Andrea Aguzzi


Salve Stefano, provo a fare con te un gioco … nel 1987, apparve nel numero di Febbraio della rivista Chitarre apparve una tua intervista. Provo a rifarti alcune di queste domande, vediamo cosa è cambiato da allora? Poi ne aggiungo alcune di mie.

Come ti sei avvicinato alla chitarra?

La chitarra è stata senza dubbio lo strumento che più di ogni altro mi ha affascinato, ma non è stato l’unico nel mio percorso. Vedi, ai tempi in cui ho cominciato (si era ancora a metà anni ’60), l’importante era far parte di una band, o di un “complesso” come si diceva allora; poi quale strumento suonavi spesso veniva deciso a tavolino in base ai posti vacanti nel gruppo di cui volevi far parte. In realtà però il primissimo strumento cui mi sono accostato è stato l’harmonium poiché i miei, all’età di 10 anni, me ne avevano regalato uno di molto piccolo e molto semplice col motore elettrico per soffiare l’aria nelle ance. Ma con l’avvento dell’era Beat l’immaginario collettivo di un’intera generazione subì un drastico cambiamento: improvvisamente la musica diventò veicolo di riscatto, di ribellione e di speranza di successo nella vita. I Beatles, i Rolling Stones e tutti i gruppi di allora non venivano semplicemente ammirati per la musica che producevano, ma considerati veri e propri maestri di vita, i “primi” che erano riusciti ad arrivare dove tutti speravamo di arrivare… ecco quindi che il senso di appartenenza al “complesso” veniva prima della stessa musica. Certo, eravamo tremendamente ingenui, e non ci rendevamo conto né di quanto miseri fossero i nostri tentativi né di quello che i nostri miti cercavano di farci capire tra le righe. Ben pochi infatti comprendevano la lingua inglese in tempi in cui a scuola si imparava soprattutto il francese, e, mentre si cantava in una specie di goffo grammelot che però prendevamo molto sul serio, non ci rendevamo conto che magari il vero testo originale recitava “I’m a loser, and I’m not what I appear to be”… sia stato come sia stato, fatto sta che l’organico di 2 chitarre, basso e batteria divenne lo standard da rispettare, e anch’io come tanti, posto che i chitarristi erano più in mostra, mi misi ad imparare quello strumento. Nel tempo però le cose cambiarono e suonai anche altri strumenti soprattutto in base alle esigenze delle mode musicali che si succedettero. Passai dalla chitarra al basso, poi alle tastiere, al sax tenore e al flauto traverso. Fu solo negli anni ’70 che tornai alla chitarra e non la abbandonai più.

Quali sono stati i chitarristi che ti hanno influenzato di più?

Potrei citarne un’infinità, ma per motivi assai diversi fra loro direi soprattutto Keith Richards, Johnny Winter e Freddie King. Il primo per la concezione ritmica della chitarra, il secondo per l’eleganza del fraseggio e il terzo per l’enorme emotività delle sue note. Ma è molto riduttivo fermarsi a soli 3 nomi!

Che parte deve avere la tecnica in un chitarrista blues?

La tecnica è utile solo in quanto ti permette di esprimere meglio le tue emozioni, ma nel blues può addirittura diventare un handicap se ti fai prendere la mano. Lo so, è un discorso un po’ strano in un’epoca di funambolici guitar hero che ne fanno di tutti i colori! Ma è il blues stesso ad andare spesso controcorrente… “less is more”è la frase che meglio descrive il modo di suonare il blues. Alexis Korner una volta mi disse: “Il vero musicista blues è quello che suona SOLO le note davvero indispensabili”. Vedi, è una questione di lessico e di registro esattamente come nella lingua parlata. Se vuoi descrivere un dialogo fra due scaricatori del porto di Marsiglia, non puoi usare termini troppo raffinati e una sintassi complessa ed evoluta, perché il registro suonerebbe sbagliato. Il blues è un po’ “ignorante”, mi si passi il termine, e la cosa più importante è il messaggio che porta, l’immediatezza emotiva di ciò che esprimi. Non c’è spazio al suo interno per i virtuosismi, perché essi non possono essere immediati per loro stessa natura visto che prevedono lunga preparazione ed esercizi estenuanti. Non sto dicendo che il virtuosismo sia sbagliato in sé, ci mancherebbe! Ma il blues sta da un’altra parte, questo è poco ma sicuro!

Che rapporto hai con la chitarra?

Io amo la chitarra perché con essa mi esprimo, ma non dimentico mai la sua natura di “strumento”: serve cioè per arrivare alla musica e non viceversa.


Attualmente quante chitarre hai?
18 hehehehe

Di blues qui in Italia si può vivere?

Mi piacerebbe molto poterti dire di sì, ma sarei ben poco sincero! Non c’è mai riuscito nessuno, e anche i pochi che fanno blues a tempo pieno in realtà hanno altre risorse che danno loro la possibilità di vivere in quel modo. Fondamentalmente io credo che ci siano due grossi ostacoli ad impedire che un musicista possa vivere di solo blues qui in Italia. Il primo e più importante è la scarsa credibilità che noi stessi attribuiamo ai bluesman nostrani. Un italiano che suona blues appare quasi come un giapponese che canta “’O sole mio”. Non importa se da anni ormai il lessico blues ha avuto una tale diffusione da diventare universale: per la gente continua ad essere una musica patrimonio esclusivo degli afro-americani. Ma anche noi stessi che siamo del settore siamo pronti a correre per vedere il primo americano che arriva, mentre ben difficilmente ci scomodiamo per chi non proviene dalla terra promessa! E il secondo ostacolo, collegato al primo, è la lingua: il pubblico non segue facilmente i testi in inglese, c’è poco da fare! Questo fa sì che il blues sia forzatamente musica di nicchia e di conseguenza il mercato è quello che è…

Che amplificatore usi? Usi qualche effetto?

Da anni uso quasi esclusivamente amplificatori Fender (ne ho 5), unica eccezione un piccolo Ampeg da 15 watt. Per gli effetti uso solo un delay, soprattutto per le parti slide, e qualche volta un overdrive se il locale non permette di alzare il volume dell’amplificatore. In passato ho usato sporadicamente un chorus, ma ultimamente l’ho abbandonato.

Senti.. sono diversi anni che è mancato Guido Toffoletti, tu hai suonato molto con lui, ci vuoi parlare di lui? Che persona era?

Non molti sanno che Guido ed io eravamo amici fin dall’adolescenza e non solo collaboratori musicali. Guido era un uomo normale con tutti i suoi pregi e tutti i suoi difetti: non ho mai condiviso l’idea che i tratti di una persona debbano essere sublimati dopo la sua morte perché quello è il vero modo per seppellirla definitivamente. Guido comunque aveva modelli musicali diversi da quelli che la maggior parte dei conterranei condividevano e questo lo portava a suonare in un modo che tanti di essi purtroppo non apprezzavano. E qui torniamo al discorso sulla tecnica che abbiamo affrontato prima. La chitarra è uno strumento molto inflazionato dalle nostre parti, ma forse ovunque. Questo provoca il fatto che si sviluppi una estrema competitività fra i chitarristi, a volte anche decisamente eccessiva. Se ci aggiungiamo la mentalità assai diffusa che solo chi ha grande tecnica merita attenzione e successo, quella che io chiamo ironicamente il “paganinismo”, ecco sorgere il livore verso chiunque ottenga un successo giudicato immeritato… al di là del famoso “nemo propheta in patria”, tutti quelli che passavano ore ed ore sullo strumento nella paranoica ricerca di essere “il migliore” e tuttavia non ottenevano il minimo successo, non sopportavano che uno da loro ritenuto di scarse capacità  fosse nei teatri e in televisione oltre che spessissimo negli articoli di stampa. Qualcuno arrivò ad inventare la storia che portasse sfortuna, come spesso succede quando non si hanno altri mezzi a disposizione. E il fatto lo fece soffrire molto. Che dire? Forse la sua dote più evidente era la capacità manageriale che indubbiamente aveva. Ma ciò non significa che non fosse un vero musicista: non sarebbe arrivato a suonare con tutti i personaggi di fama internazionale che ha avuto nei suoi dischi e nei suoi concerti live! A parte il rapporto personale di amicizia, io ho un grosso debito di riconoscenza nei suoi confronti proprio perché non sarei mai arrivato a conoscere tanti musicisti di quel calibro e pure a suonarci assieme se non fosse stato per lui!


Quale significato ha l’improvvisazione nella tua ricerca musicale? Si può tornare a parlare di improvvisazione in un repertorio così codificato come quello classico o bisogna per forza uscirne e rivolgersi ad altri repertori, jazz, contemporanea, etc?

Qui credo tu abbia inserito domande che forse erano indirizzate ad altri… comunque l’improvvisazione è la base del blues senza ombra di dubbio! Il bello del blues sta proprio nell’estemporaneità delle esecuzioni che trovano di volta in volta nuove strade partendo dalla stessa struttura codificata.

In che modo la tua metodologia musicale viene influenza dalla comunità di persone (musicisti e non) con cui tu collabori? Modifica il tuo approccio in relazione a quello che direttamente o indirettamente ricevi da loro? Se ascolti una diversa interpretazione di un brano da te già suonato o che vuoi eseguire tieni conto di questo ascolto o preferisci procedere in totale indipendenza?

Qualsiasi esperienza la vita ti proponga finisce per influenzare il tuo modo di suonare: a maggior ragione questo è valido per l’ascolto di altri musicisti. Ho sicuramente imparato più cose ascoltando cattive esecuzioni altrui che non chiudendomi in casa a studiare cose sterili. Ma ho anche imparato tantissimo delle belle cose fatte dai bravi musicisti.

Una domanda un po’ provocatoria sulla musica in generale, non solo quella contemporanea o d’avanguardia. Frank Zappa nella sua autobiografia scrisse: “Se John Cage per esempio dicesse “Ora metterò un microfono a contatto sulla gola, poi berrò succo di carota e questa sarà la mia composizione”, ecco che i suoi gargarismi verrebbero qualificati come una SUA COMPOSIZIONE, perché ha applicato una cornice, dichiarandola come tale. “Prendere o lasciare, ora Voglio che questa sia musica.” È davvero valida questa affermazione per definire un genere musicale, basta dire questa è musica classica, questa è contemporanea ed è fatta? Ha ancora senso parlare di “genere musicale”?

Il genere musicale è il lessico con cui ti esprimi. Il lessico è frutto di regole. Il vero musicista è quello che se ne frega delle regole pur di esprimere se stesso. L’importante è però che ci sia il messaggio emotivo e non solo estetico in quello che fai: dubito che un gargarismo possa esprimere emozioni, ma non si sa mai…

Tu suoni blues da moltissimi anni. Ho, a volte, la sensazione che nella nostra epoca la storia della musica scorra senza un particolare interesse per il suo decorso cronologico, nella nostra discoteca-biblioteca musicale il prima e il dopo, il passato e il futuro diventano elementi intercambiabili, questo non può comportare il rischio per un interprete e per un compositore di una visione uniforme? Di una “globalizzazione” musicale?

La visione “uniforme” o “globalizzata” non rappresenta un pericolo per i veri artisti perché non ci sarà mai per loro l’omologazione delle personalità. Le scuole ci sono sempre state, ed hanno dato casa ad una miriade di pseudo-artisti talmente insignificanti da essere spesso dimenticati o ricordati solo dai superesperti, i quali a loro volta hanno fondato una carriera sull’inutile tentativo di ridurre l’arte ad un elenco enciclopedico senza comprenderne la vera natura e goderne. Basti pensare che la scuola che più di ogni altra dovrebbe sfornare nuove menti geniali in grado di creare innovazione si chiama “Conservatorio”: Per contro i veri artisti hanno scardinato dalla base le stesse scuole che li avevano allevati. Io non mi reputo un vero artista, ed è per questo che mi permetto di dire queste cose: sono solo uno che fa al meglio quello che sa fare cercando di provare e trasmettere emozioni, tutto qua!

Che musiche ascolti di solito?

...  ascolto di tutto: dalla classica al jazz, dal pop al blues, qualunque cosa purché fatta col cuore.

Quali sono invece i tuoi cinque spartiti indispensabili?

Non ci sono spartiti nel blues :-D

Il Blog viene letto anche da giovani neodiplomati e diplomandi, che consigli ti senti di dare a chi, dopo anni di studio, ha deciso di iniziare la carriera di musicista?

Oggi come oggi, qualsiasi lavoro si voglia intraprendere non ha serie prospettive di guadagno: tanto va fare esclusivamente ciò che ti appassiona

Con chi ti piacerebbe suonare e chi ti piacerebbe suonare?

Sono già riuscito a suonare con molti di quelli con cui sognavo di poter suonare, ma siamo sempre nell’ambito del mito. Nella realtà dei fatti poi non sempre le cose corrispondono ai sogni. Mi piacerebbe suonare esclusivamente con musicisti che amano quello che fanno e ci credono. Mi piacerebbe “suonare” tutti quelli che pensano di essere bravissimi perché fanno mille note al secondo.

Quali sono i tuoi prossimi progetti?

Sto rimettendo insieme la vecchia Blues Society, la band di Guido nella sua formazione originale, e sono molto entusiasta della cosa!


venerdì 10 aprile 2015

Review of My New Adress by Stefano Scodanibbio, Stradivarius, 2006


Stefano Scodanibbio, musician and composer, was one the most interesting player connected to the double bass’s rebirth in the '80’s and '90’s and to the last tendencies of the contemporary music. Unfortunately he died at the age of 55 after a long illness the 10th January 2012. For him have written new music composers like Bussotti, Donatoni, Estrada, Ferneyhough, Frith, Globokar, Sciarrino, Xenakis.. about him Cage has said: "Stafano Scodanibbio is amazing. The haven'ts heard better double bass playing than Scodanibbio's. The wases just amazed. And I think everyone who heard him was amazed. He is really extraordinary. His performance was absolutely magic."

This record, My New Adress, was published by Stradivarius Recording in 2006and it shows us Scodanibbio not as the double bass player but as a composer., all these six passages were written between 1984 and 2003 and are destined to different (guitar, piano, low flute, violin and cello) instruments and not for the double bass.
The passages of My New Adress seem to integrate instead with what the composer has written in the initial pages of the beautiful multilingual booklet of 36 pages that accompanies the cd, this is not an integral job, with an organic idea but instead intuitions, ideas conceived in "portions of time spent, often in distant lands, to freely write music, without constraints or worries, maturities, errands, festival’s tendencies, organic, aesthetics, time impositions".
It strikes the liberty of writing and feelings that shine through the listening, exemplary under this point of view the third passage "Return to Cartagena", written for low flute and interpreted in magistral way by Mario Caroli: his instrument seems to turn into a string, into the skin of drum and allowed to wave for almost ten consecutive minutes creating intense suggestions. Other interesting passages are the ones for guitar. In this record we have in fact the presence of the three notable guitars of Magnus Andersson, Elena Càsoli and Jurgen Ruck, busy in two pieces "Quando le montagne si colorano di rosa" and "Dos abismos". Personally I have particularly appreciated the passage "Quando le montagne si colorano di rosa", that sees the presence of the duo Càsoli - Ruck, characterized by a frantic initial rhythmic line that progressively resolves itself in a more meditative and peaceful mood and that shows well in evidence the interlacements and the perfect agreement among the two guitars.
This is a record that shows continuous quotations and literary and autobiographic interlacements, "idioms, trips, musical intruments", a new side, perhaps more intimate of this great Italian musician and composer.

giovedì 9 aprile 2015

Review of Venus' Song New Music for Guitar Vol 1 by Gisbert Watty, ArsPublica 2011


The subtitle of this cd almost makes me dream: New Music for Guitar Vol 1! First cd therefore of a series of recordings devoted to the new music for contemporary guitar, enough to make me smile for more than one month.
I know Gisbert Watty well, we had interviewed him a couple of years ago it for the Italian Blog Chitarra e Dintorni Nuove Musiche and he had supriesed me for his devotion and his enthusiasm about looking for new roads and new possibilities for his guitar, particularly for a neglected historicall aspect about the classical repertoire: compositions for ensemble in which the guitar appears.
This first entitled volume Venus' Song, from the homonym passage composed by Fabrizio De Rossi Re is composed in fact from passages where the guitar doesn't play alone, but always or together with the flute of Tristaino, the piano played by Sigmund Watty or the clarinet of Marcello Bonacchelli, or it plays accompanied by the electronics as in the sad passage of Andrea Nicoli or in electric version accompanied by the cd as foresees the music by Thomas Reiner, Australian composer that had already in past composed for Gisbert Watty and for the trio altrove 1.3.
Only one the score for soloist guitar Three Dances in the Abstract composed by René Mense.
Six are the composers for this cd. Besides the quoted Reiners, De Rossi Re and Renè Mense also lend their talent Andrea Nicoli and Thomas Bottger. The music here ring belongs more to the music for herself, abstract music, meditative, proper to accompany the silence, to define and to widen the space.
Only exception the passage "fan-fair" by Thomas Reiner where a to pulsating minimal techno worthy of the more experimental Jeff Mills creates a base for the structures produced by the electric guitar of Watty, correct conclusion of an interesting cd indeed. Now we have to wait the next volumes.
I allow me to signal Venus' Song to all the guitarists that desire to go out of the formula of the solo recital and I make my compliments to the Italian independent record label ArsPublica for this beautiful initiative, not the only to mention in their interesting catalog.

mercoledì 8 aprile 2015

Guitars Speak: "Cups, Glasses and Tanks", "The light and other things" e Still Nature



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Puntata dedicata a tre diversi lavori: il primo "Cups, Glasses and Tanks" del trio Nicola Guazzaloca, Pablo Montagne e Giacomo Mongelli, il secondo  "The light and other things" di Giacomo Merega, David Tronzo e Noah Kaplan e per finire Still Nature di Daniele Camarda

This episode is dedicated to three different works: the first "Cups, Glasses and Tanks"  by the italian trio Nicola Guazzaloca, Pablo Montagne and Giacomo Mongelli, the second "The light and other things" by Giacomo Merega, David Tronzo and Noah Kaplan and finally Still Nature by Daniele Camarda

http://radiovocedellasperanza.it/

Review of “what we talk” by Scott Fields and Stephan Rath, Neos 2010


History. It’s 2007, we are in Cologne, Germany, for the Triennial of Music. The program of the Triennial foresees that six experts of Renaissance music would be compared with the same number of musicians devoted to contemporary music. Piano with clavicembalo, organ with keyboards and synthesizers and so on. Obviously the guitar is placed side by side with the lute.
From these joining the musicians must create some new music that keeps in mind of the characteristics of their tools and their musical formation. For the guitar the champion called in the name of the modernity is Mister Scott Fields, American, guitarist and improviser voted to the free improvisation on the style of people like Derek Bailey or Larry Ochs and Elliott Sharp. For the lute it was called Stephan Rath.
The two musician play, have a good time, create a beautiful agreement, they enjoy themselves so much that their music is recorded by the same Fields and after a couple of year printed on cd for the Neos, record label devoted to the contemporary repertoires.
In the notes that come with the cd Fields quietly speaks of music "composed" for the Triennial, but we don’t know if these music have been printed or are available for other interpreters. I sincerely hope for it, because the musics are beautiful, very intense and almost dreamy in their melancholy and the two musicians play very well. Despite the difference about instrument and cultural background they overcome very well the difficulties and they play indeed with a beautiful and pleasant interplay. Both instruments (guitar and theorbo) can do what they want, playing the walking bass parts, the melodic parts, being dissonant.. and they exchange the roles and the competences without grazing the musical texture or without showing signs of yielding. There are 5 passages, 5 track in the cd the first four conceived as parts of a suite and the last "what we talk" gives the name to the cd and stands alone, the durations are among a minimum of almost 6 minutes to almost 23. Otherwise from other situations that see the improviser exceed with a loss of quality here the music flows serene without fatigues for the listener, the two musicians are good and they know how to weave themselves together.
Beautiful record, to listen for the one who plays in a duo or for the one who are thinking about creating together one with a liutist, in this case this cd would be a good base of departure, Scott Fields has his own website and maybe we should ask him if transcripts of these duets exist.

martedì 7 aprile 2015

Hans-Jürgen Gerung in Concert

Liebe Musikfreunde,


Ich wünsche Ihnen frohe und erholsame Osterfeiertage!

Bitte gestatten sie, dass ich Sie nochmals auf
folgende Konzerttermine hinweise:

Alter mit Gitarre



► Samstag, 18. April um 19.30 Uhr
in Kempten, St. Lorenz Basilika

► Sonntag, 19. April um 17 Uhr in Oberstaufen,
St. Peter & Paul

Vokalensemble der St. Lorenz Basilika Kempten;
Ltg.: Mag. Benedikt Bonelli

venerdì 3 aprile 2015

Ensemble Phoenix Basel in Concert

Ensemble Phoenix Basel                                                    logo phoenix  
phoenix
Phoenix IV - «Professors, Bad Trips & Lessons»

Samstag, 11. / Sonntag, 12. April 2015, 20.00 Uhr, Gare du Nord Basel


Montag, 13. April 2015, 20.00 Uhr, Kunstraum Walcheturm, Zürich (Koproduktion mit der
IGNM Zürich)

Oscar Bianchi (*1975): Mezzogiorno für 11 Instrumente und Elektronik (2004-2005) - 15'  

Benedikt Schiefer (*1978): Vom Verlieren und Finden für Ensemble (2014, UA, Kompositionsauftrag des "Ensemble Phoenix Basel") - 10'

--------Pause--------
Fausto Romitelli (1963-2004): Professor Bad Trip: Lesson II für 10 Instrumente (1998-1999) - 12'  

Fausto Romitelli: Professor Bad Trip: Lesson III für 10 Instrumente (2000) - 15' 

Ensemble Phoenix Basel:
Christoph Bösch - Flöte, Bassflöte
Donna Molinari - Klarinette, Bassklarinette
Nenad Markovic - Trompete
Michael Büttler - Posaune
Flavio Virzì - E-Gitarre
Emanuel Schnyder - E-Bass
Daniel Buess - Schlagzeug
Helena Bugallo - Klavier
Samuel Wettstein - E-Piano, Synthesizer
Friedemann Treiber - Violine
David Sontòn Caflisch - Viola
Beat Schneider - Violoncello
Thomas Peter - Elektronik
Christoph Stürchler - Klangregie

Jürg Henneberger - Leitung


 
Am 27. Juni 2004 stirbt in Mailand der italienische Komponist Fausto Romitelli, im Alter von 41 Jahren. Zehn Jahre nach seinem Tod widmet sich das «Ensemble Phoenix Basel» seiner Werkgruppe, die mit Sicherheit am deutlichsten ausdrückt, worum es dem Komponisten stilistisch ging: Neues anrühren, Klänge und Energien verschiedener Stile vom Jazz-Rock über Elektronik bis zum akademischen Kompositionshandwerk in Kontakt zu bringen. Im letzten Jahr hat das «Ensemble Phoenix Basel» im Rahmen einer Zusammenarbeit mit dem Genfer «Ensemble Vortex» den ersten Teil der Lessons zur Aufführung gebracht, nun folgen die Teile II und III. Dass die Lessons der Professor Bad Trip-Reihe sich dabei auch an den psychedelischen Fumetti des italienischen Zeichners Gianluca Lerici (aka Professor Bad Trip; 1963-2006) orientieren und Romitelli auch Henri Michaux' halluzinogene Poetik als Einfluss nennt, macht sie allerdings nicht zum schlechten trip. Explosiv und farbenfroh, verzerrt und elektrisch, rituell und hypnotisch entsteht Romitellis Triptychon. Romitelli schreibt auch von einer «Vorliebe für Deformation, für das Artifizielle», in «obsessiven Repetitionen, insistierenden Beschleunigungen von Material». An der Rock-Musik alleine interessiert ihn dabei weder Melodie noch Harmonik, sondern die «elektro-akustische Behandlung des Instrumentalklangs und dessen Verhältnis zur (Ausdrucks-)Geste». Ohne Zweifel hat sich der italienisch-schweizerische Komponist Oscar Bianchi (1975) von dieser Stil-Mischung inspirieren lassen: sein Stück Mezzogiorno für 11 Instrumente und Elektronik zeigt sich in Wahl der Instrumentierung und Musiksprache durchaus an Romitelli angelehnt. Das überrascht nicht: Bianchi hat es dem langjährigen Mentor und Freund Romitelli auch zum Andenken gewidmet. Als Dritter im Bunde wird der deutsche Komponist Benedikt Schiefer - auch er setzt sich ausgiebig mit Elektronik auseinander - ein neues Werk beisteuern.
André Fatton

Freitag, 17.4.2015, Deutschlandfunk Köln, Kammermusiksaal

FORUM NEUER MUSIK 2015 - OSTASIEN MODERN
»Young Asia« - Ensemble Phoenix Basel, Dirigent: Jürg Henneberger

YU ODA (*1983) Like a beautiful women with dirty clothes DE

LEI LIANG (*1972) Aural Hypothesis DE

DIANA SOH (*1984) Incantare:take2 UA

HEERA KIM (*1976) Pan UA new version

KE-YONG CHONG (*1971) Untitled Love EE

YING WANG (*1976) Glissadulaton UA new version

Das Konzert "Young Asia" präsentiert sechs perspektivträchtige jüngere KomponistInnen, die von internationalen Standards des Komponierens geprägt sind, die sich zugleich der Traditionen ihrer Heimatländer vergegenwärtigen und eigene Personalstile entfalten.
Ensemble Phoenix Basel Website
Gare du Nord Basel
IGNM Zürich
Deutschlandfunk Köln/ Young Asia

Master di II Livello in Interpretazione della Musica Contemporanea del Conservatorio di Santa Cecilia 2015-2016


Master di II Livello in Interpretazione della Musica Contemporanea del Conservatorio di Santa Cecilia 2015-2016

siamo lieti di comunicarvi che è appena stato pubblicato il bando per l'ammissione al Master di II Livello in Interpretazione della Musica Contemporanea del Conservatorio di Santa Cecilia.

Questo l'elenco dei Docenti di Strumento:

Chitarra Arturo Tallini
Contrabbasso, Daniele Roccato
Pianoforte, Bruno Canino
Percussione, Gianluca Ruggeri
Saxofono, Enzo Filippetti
Viola, Luca Sanzò

link al bando italiano:

giovedì 2 aprile 2015

Interview with Fabio Selvafiorita and Andrea Aguzzi



You have a curious curriculum: you have a degree in musicology in Bologna with a thesis on computer-assisted composition, you founded a company for video production and postproduction, and you studied electronic music at the Scuola Civica in Milan with Alvise Vidolin, what did it mean for you to study with a teacher of that level?

It may seem a little bit eclectic path but I always followed only two great passions: music and cinema. I arrived at the Scuola Civica after that I temporarily abbandoned my university studies in Bologna. Vidolin came from the Padova’s center of Sonology, he had collaborated with important postwar composers as Nono, Sciarrino, Berio, Battistelli. He remains the historical memory of Italian contemporary music so I could not ask for anything better then him. I made a lot of practice with him about live electronics of repertoire pieces and I remember many interesting encounters with composers and scientists.

You studied at IRCAM in Paris, what did you find in that country compared to the Italian situation? What kind of environment IRCAM has...?

The subject of my thesis was: OpenMusic, IRCAM software for composing, so it seemed natural to further my studies with the same people who contributed to the development of the software. The IRCAM is a reality that is aging but is unmatched in terms of organization and professionalism in the research and production. We must, however, try to understand the need for this type of research today. Many of these institutions tend to approach music from a unique cognitive-engineering paradigm type which has now had its day. Staying in Paris I have found much more interesting as what goes musically by GRM. An "Italian situation" does not exist because there are no similar institutions in our country. But I do not think this is a bad thing.

In much of your music I think we can feel the presence of the guitar, it may seem a little bit strange thingthinking about your studies and your training about electronics and computer science. How important is the presence of the guitar in your music?

Please keep in mind that I began studying music at 12 years old when my father enrolled me in a course of classical guitar. There followed a period of intense study lasted almost 15 years and for a some time I embraced the idea of making it a career. I became pretty good but I soon realized that it is not enough to be "pretty good" to become a professionist. I did then also my best experiences with the electric guitar playing rock but especially metal, thrash metal. I liked the style of Chuck Schuldiner, Denis D'Amour (aka Piggy) two young lives too damn early cut short. Then some American acoustic music, Fahey, Basho, Michael Hedges. Parallel to the guitar, however, as you pointed out, I began to be interested in other ways: musicology, electronic music and finally the composition. For example I consider the attendance of composition’s courses with Alexander Solbiati another very important moment for my training. Thanks to him I learned what it means to compose, to be a Composer and then mediate between a musical thought and writing by means of musical instruments. In electronic music instead writing is absent or takes other meanings. Other grammars, other formal possibilities emerge and are developed. There is thus a substantial ontological difference between the two worlds, and the difference is made writing. In my music such as this is reflected in a vast difference between the electronic music that I produce and I write the instrumental. Contrary to electronic music that I produce my writing, so even for guitar, is quite "traditional" and my models remain composers like Petrassi, Castiglioni, Henze. Going back to your question about the guitar is right; most of the things I wrote down was for guitar. And I will continue to do so. I am convinced that it is an instrument yet to be explored. As a composer, I will not pass up this challenge.

You have published other pieces for guitar (besides the Fleurs d'X) for Ut Orpheus Edizioni, like "Seven short pieces for guitar" in 2005 and "Eloge de l'Asymptote for Guitar" in 2006, do you want to talk about them? Have they been performed and recorded?

The Fleurs d'X are now published by Nuova Stradivarius while the two works you mentioned are published by Ut Orpheus. Apart Fleurs d'X my catalog for guitar begins to be quite substantial: two fantasies-sonatas, five preludes, three collections of songs in a Suite’s form including the seven short pieces, the Eloge and Quodlibet and finally a chamber’s music for guitar and five instruments. The model I belowed to compose the scores you mentioned above is the one of the great baroque Suite guitarists, Roncalli, de Visée. Short forms, concise and with an extreme gestures varietas. Fleurs d'X apart, the majority of these scores have never been performed and recorded.

How did start the project Fleurs d'X and collaboration with Elena Casoli?

The Fleurs d'X is primarily a game born almost by accident. I tell some curious details about the birth of this work in the CD’s booklet. Like all games, there are some serious implications and some half-serious. I read that you called them fragments: I think this is a correct definition even though I consider them the same way as emblems. The mandatory nature of the scores is not without “reservatezze”, very close to the limits of the music game as the famous Rondeau Cordier or symbolic as in emblemata by Atalanta Fugiens Maier. There are such small musical puzzles that I enjoyed to put in a lot of passages. I always then an image, as the music as courtesan thing sometimes I write for guitar as if it was appropriate music to sign the hours of an imaginary future court. If you have ever read Anathem by Neal Stephenson you can easily imagine this fantastic monastic courtesan community. Talking about Elena I believe that the greatest fortune for a composer is working with professional interpreters. Everything she did was made with maximum professionalism: I offered her the job, we met three times for tests and at that point I realized that I could also seal the collaboration in a CD. I wanted to personally follow the studio recordings experiencing some solutions like using a contact microphone to highlight some particular sounds.

Berlioz said that composing for classical guitar was difficult to do because you had to be a guitarist, this phrase has often been used as a justification for the limited repertoire of classical guitar before other instruments like piano and violin. At the same time has been more and more questioned by the growing interest that the guitar (whether classical, acoustic, electric or midi) has reached in contemporary music. Do you think that there is still a trth in Berlioz’s words?

The words certainly had a sense in the period in which they were written. Berlioz played guitar and was a hero of the revolution that was going through the language of music. But maybe I would talk more about sound then about language. The romantic sound (his Dionysian component), is in fact incompatible with the thinness of the guitar (Apollonian instrument). It 'a sound that tends to saturate space. In the same instrumentation essay Berlioz considers innovatively problems as the spatialization of orchestral instruments, acoustics etc. etc. But romantic saturation was not only an obvious "dynamic" question.At those time they were beginning to become aware of the same tonal space’s limits. If the already defined composers “forma mentis” built on Fux was still unwilling to adapt itself to the combinatorial guitar, you can imagine it in the post Sturm und Drang. Guitar was always the Ancient Regime’s instrument, of Louis XIV, and Berlioz in his music certainly was not celebrating the memory of the victims of the Vendée genocide. If the romantic sound tends to envelop the audience, guitar, in contrast, has a sound that tends to draw to itself the listener. Enchanting him. But here happens something extraordinary, unique and even tragic in the history of music. From the point of view of psychoanalysis it is a process that would call for the” removal of a schizophrenic unconscious desire”. The novelty expressed by the romantic sound, his ecstatic dimension is so predominant that prevails even on the imaginary mythic-symbolic embodied by the plucked string instruments (therefore also in the processing of the most archaic type guitar lute, harp). Imagery that is still very much present in the composers (those celebrated by Canon) who removed the guitar from their practice. You can think about of the centrality of archaic harp or lute in all processing of romantic poetry. Another example that would be worth deepening: the harp-lute of Beckmesser in Meistersinger Wagner. I would not dragging it too long but, for better or for worse this consideration for me has important implications for the entire history of the guitar. Here there is also material, as he wrote Quirino Principe, to define "what the music is whatever its historical epiphany ... its essence, beyond existence."

I have noticed in recent years a gradual rapprochement between the two aspects of avant-garde music, on the one hand the academic side and the other one brought forward by musicians far away from the classical and coming from areas such as jazz, electronics and extreme rock like Fred Frith, John Zorn, the New York downtown scene and some electronic music labels such as Sub Rosa and Mille Plateux influenced by the thought of Deleuze and Guattari. What do you think of these possible interactions and do you think that there is “room” for them in Italy? In addition, we often hear about improvisation, sometimes random improvisation within the contemporary music sometimes confusing it with game of chances as for Cage, what meaning has improvisation in your music research?

Never as today in Italy there are now amazing musical talents, between performers and composers and electronic musicians. Regardless of the institutions and their degeneration is an extraordinary period for both the experimental music as for the academic. The difference in our country is made by the individual, hardened by all the possible difficulties to emerge. On contamination between academia and experimentation I have many doubts but I hope, in the near future, to be able to hear my voice. My insatiable curiosity led me to attend both worlds ... but I do not know if you know Cristina Campo’s verse:
"Two worlds -and I come from the other."
Improvisation for me has a very great importance especially in electroacoustic music. But I was never interested in documenting the act of improvisation itself.

Apart from the use of the computer what approach do you follow to compose? Do you use only the computer or do you prefer a more "traditional" way? Do you write on pentagram or do you use other systems such as diagrams, drawings, etc.?

If it comes to writing music I actually almost always use first pen and paper. Not for a quirk retro because objectively it is less tiring write music directly on computer. But the hand’s ancient gesture imprints more easily in the mind and helps me a lot especially in the pre-compositional development. Then I take a lot of notes in a completely disorder. But not always proceed in this way. Sometimes I use OpenMusic (or PWGL) and Finale opened simultaneously to generate new material. The transition between these softwares or of these with the first method is non-linear and unpredictable. In between there are many prints, many cuts and a lot of dutch tape. I use drawings and diagrams mainly for electronic music or chamber music. They are not prescriptive but a repertoire of possibilities regarding the different parts assembly (these are often improvised on electro-acoustic instruments, especially nowadays with tapes and pedals). These patterns refer to narrative procedures and / or typical of the audiovisual film so as to oppose each other editing and montage techniques.

What are your next projects?


After four years since my last “musique concrete” production I’ m finally finishing my first electronic music solo. It 'a long suite tentatively titled Come to Venus, Melancholy (the story by Thomas Disch). I then picked up an old project of a series of scenes from Faust for viola d'amore and electronics but I have not the faintest idea where and how it will end. Recent news is the beginning of a collaboration with the online newspaper L'Intellettuale Dissidente for which I will deal with Traditional and Avant-Garde music, finally in a post-ideological perspective, with no easy concessions to the simplifications, that will be followed by critical insights, news and advice listening.